--- Are you Loved by God,
or are you a Christian?
Are you God's friend? ---

That's just a silly question, some might respond. Being loved by God and being a Christian friend of God is one and the same thing. It definitely is not!

All that is required to be loved by God is to be conceived from two people made in his image, (Gen 1:27‑28) and so, to be alive. God loves every single one of his children. What though, about being Christian. Well, that's wholly different! Being Christian requires a  conscious  conscience decision made by the person seeking God (1 Chr 28:9) to follow Christ Jesus. Hence, "Christian." You need to understand and be certain to obey only Christ, because he is the one qualified to teach us what the one true God wants us to know. (John 18:37; Acts 4:12; Mat 23:1‑13) Why is that so? It is because Jesus is the one sent by his Father to teach us how change from being loved by God to being God's friend. (John 15:11‑16; John 8:42‑47) The very simple gist of this webpage is so you can know this: The difference between being a good person or a bad one, is whether you choose to put faith in the teachings of God's son, Jesus Christ... (John 3:19 of 16-21)

Why is it necessary to understand the difference between being a Christian friend of God, and being loved by him? To understand why, please consider King David of old. David was a man who loved God and was loved by God. So... God blessed David to kill Goliath as a young man and then later to become King of Israel. (1 Sam 17) While David was upright most all of his life, soon after becoming King, he had an illicit affair with Bathsheba and she conceived a child. David first tried to manipulate her husband Uriah into being intimate with Bathsheba so people would think the child was his. Finally, David murdered Uriah and married Bathsheba. (2 Sam 11:2‑12:25) So, even though David repented and continued as one loved and protected and used by God, do you really think he would have been called God's friend during the time of his sin. Would a true friend of God do those horrible things. Of course not! What was missing in David that he couldn't be a friend of God? Now here's the point: David couldn't be God's friend because didn't know Jesus Christ. He couldn't know Christ, of course, because David lived a little over a thousand years before Christ was born. You can only become a friend of God through exercising faith in what his son Jesus taught. (John 6:28‑40)

What, then, about Abraham? Some will surely note he was called "friend" by God even though he lived about 2000 years before Christ. (Isa 41:8) Yes, Abraham was called a friend of God, and yes, he didn't know Christ. Or did he? Abraham's life was used by God as a powerful lesson about the coming Messiah (Jesus Christ). The Old Testament was for the purpose of explaining how to recognize the Messiah and to understand why we need him. (Gal 3:23‑26) The teachings of Jesus amount to a sort of test for us; and how we respond to his words forms the basis of our judgment. (John 3:19‑21) What, though, about Abraham? How could he be called God's friend? It is because Abraham's whole life amounted to a test that served as a picture or prefigure of what our heavenly Father would do for the rest of us using the teachings of Christ. Abraham loved and was faithful to God from his youth. God then chose Abraham to be given a great honor. Abraham was promised he would become one in the line of those men and women God was using to produce the Messiah. In Eden, God had promised he would raise up a seed of the woman (Eve) who would destroy Satan. (Gen 3:15; 1 John 3:8) God extended or clarified that Edenic promise when he told Abraham that by means of his seed, all nations of the earth would be blessed. (Gen 18:16‑19) The promised Messiah would be one of Abraham and Sarah's descendants. (Sarah notably selected and used by God as an ancestress of Christ - Gen 17:15‑21) Abraham waited for his promised son to be born. Then, Abraham waited some more. In his old age and past child bearing years for both he and his wife, he still waited. Finally, the promised son was miraculously born from his old age at over 100 years. Abraham had spent his whole life in service to God, waiting on that son of promise who would be a blessing to all nations. Then, when his son Isaac was still a young man or teenager, God told Abraham to go and sacrifice his son. That might indicate Abraham had developed a problem. He loved God and he loved Isaac. Over the years, his love for Isaac and God's promises surrounding that son had become so great, it might have eclipsed Abraham's love for God. So, for that reason and/or to prefigure what would happen to Christ, God told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. After the three day ordeal of traveling and preparing for the offering, Abraham raised the knife to kill his son. God intervened to provide a substitute offering. What God then said is very important. God said to Abraham, "Now I do know you are God fearing, in that you have not withheld your son, your only one, from me." (Gen 22:9‑18) In that "work" by Abraham, of attempting to offer the most important thing in his life (excpept God, of course), Abraham illustrated what the teachings of Christ do for the rest of us. In passing our test of listening to and putting faith in Christ, we demonstrate God is most important. If King David had had an understanding of Jesus's teachings, he likely would not have done what he did with Bathsheba and Uriah. Abraham might be thought of as having passed the same test we all pass when we demonstrate our love for God by exercising faith in the sayings of his son. Abraham's works of faith made him God's friend, just as our placing faith in the words of Jesus make us God's friends. (John 15:11‑16; James 2:23; Gal 3:26‑29) Remember too, about this drama, part of the promise to Abraham included his teaching his sons and daughters to worship the true God. (Gen 18:16‑19) In his old age, Abraham would have been wise and experienced enough to do that.

So then, just being alive makes you loved by God. He is then searching among us to show his power to help. (2 Chron 16:9) How? Jesus answered that question when he told us no one can come to him unless they are first drawn by his Father. (John 6:44) As God watches each one of us, he takes note if we are inclined to be aware of him and to be obedient. (1 Chr 28:9) Disobedience is what caused the tribulation destroying our world. God has to stop that disobedience before He can make things better. Otherwise, the wicked would just keep tearing it all down. Have you seen Ukraine? (JustBibleTruth.com/URAwake.pdf) Since Jesus was born, God has given only one command. He spoke from a cloud to tell us Jesus was his son and we  should  must listen to Christ. (Mat 17:5) That's it... That's how God is showing his power in behalf of each one of us. That is the one and only simple solution to all our problems. We listen to Jesus to learn what he was sent by his Father to teach, and then, based in that knowledge, we place absolute faith in the son of God as our savior. That conscious decision is the act of stepping from death into life. (John 5:24) Putting faith in Christ, above everything else, shows God the same thing about us He learned about Abraham. And no, God can't know who you are before you make the choice. By our faith in and obedience to Christ, God can know we are God fearing, in that we have not withheld anything from him. We become his friends and can be protected for eternity, surviving right through this tribulation. (Psa 91:5‑10)

So, if you have the ability to understand and reason on these words, you can know you are loved by God. Whether you are his friend, however, is based on you; on whether you have made the choice to subjugate all you have and desire to the will of God, through your obedience to Christ. That is God's will for you. (Mark 3:31‑35; 1 Thes 5:16‑22; 1 Tim 2:1‑7) He is your loving Father and wants to take care of you and protect you. For him to be able to do that, you have to demonstrate you are not and will not become one of the people who have caused the tribulation killing us all. The only way you can step out of the crowd being destroyed is by your expressed faith in Christ. (John 5:24) How could you put faith in him if you haven't put forth the effort to learn what he taught? The purpose of the Bible is to lead you to Christ. What Christ taught is then recorded in the four short Gospel Books by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Sit at Jesus's feet by reading those Gospels over and over to the point of personal familiarity! (Mark 3:31‑35)

See you soon, then, in paradise! (Isa 11:1‑12)

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